Pretty obvious dollars can be converted into gold, I don't think its nessecary to explain every time, it's dollars > gems > gold, seems redundant and we are not all children. The question is whether gold can be converted into dollars - it can't officially, it can into gems, pity the gem store has shit items no one really wants so thus the value of gold stays high, and people have to pay more rl money multiple times for gem>gold conversion to finish anets massive gold sinks that make up the majority of the endgame that is guild wars 2.

I would have much prefered a subscription.

I 100% agree with you on this point. The only one rejoicing are the gold sellers because they are the one making a BOMB gold selling! Since gold sellers are so much easier and cheaper to buy gold from there is no reason to buy from Anet

There is no better belt (in Cata, obviously) better than that for a discipline priest. Or holy. Shadow I didn't have enough experience in to make a proper judgment on. Some might argue that Vestral's Irrepressible Girdle is a teeny tiny bit better, but I, and most priests I chatted with, preferred the Sash. The Cord of the Slain Champion is admittedly better for disc priests, but good luck getting that considering its low drop chance as well as being sought-after by mages, warlocks and shadow priests.

This is my last attempt at explaining this to the fans, hopeful example:

I can buy the mats to level up Jeweling on my alt for X dollars or I can spend 3 days farming the mats.

If I spend 3 days farming the mats, I saved X dollars.

If I use X dollars to buy the mats, I bought myself 3 days worth of gaming time.

And we knew that since before prepurchase. That's not the problem. The problem is that, as someone here put it, the entire endgame revolves around huge gold sinks, with gold being a pain in the arse to earn.

That's why having dollars=gold is a big problem, because they made it so that you feel it's easier to buy gold with money than actually farm it. Who can blame them though? Their job is to make as much money from the game as possible. If people accept it and don't speak up against it, we'll be seeing more aggressive means of encouraging cash shop usage. Not that I care anymore though; I've given up on the game. The game might be a huge success, but to me it's just another MMO that failed to rise to my expectations, very much like SWTOR. For that reason, it will be "gathering dust" on the same shelf as SWTOR.

But that has nothing to do with it. How is it people don't understand that?

The GW2 economy is not equal to real money. This is a fact that cannot be argued. Hence not uniform. How this is such a difficult concept to grasp is a mystery to me.

If someone buys gold(from us) or we buy from other people THEN it is has a value in dollar.

You can get gold from Anet( Very discouraged, extremely expensive and it's a scam more or less) then you convert your money to gold. You can also SELL your gold to other people and since there is a buyer who is willing to buy for REAL LIFE MONEY, then gold has a value in dollar.

But that condition only suffices if there are people that buy gold from other people ( which i think the majority of people do).

But that has nothing to do with it. How is it people don't understand that?

The GW2 economy is not equal to real money. This is a fact that cannot be argued. Hence not uniform. How this is such a difficult concept to grasp is a mystery to me.

....ok, i'm going to explain this as plainly as i can without drawing pictures in crayon.

the reason things are worth money, is cause people want them and will pay money for them.
thats the reason why gold is a ridiculously valuable metal but iron is just so-so.

you buy gems with real money, you can buy or sell gold with gems, thus gold is worth money.

money=gems=gold=money.
or gold=time=money.

thats FACT, shouting an opinion is fact does not make it so, proving it is fact does.

if you're having problems grasping this don't take a economics class, your head will catch on fire and your brain will explode and no one wants that... other then psychopaths, gorephiliacs, sadists, and the people who like to watch snuff films(which im pretty sure is made up of the first 3).

you buy gems with real money, you can buy or sell gold with gems, thus gold is worth money.

Again, no. What part of "one-way transfer" is it that you don't understand? It has to be "one-way", isn't it?

Okay, listen. One is a number. This is a really important part, so pay attention. A number is this funny little figure that represents things in the world which can be counted. So one is the smallest number. It's like having one piece of candy. And when you eat that piece of candy, you have no candies left. That's one. Now, and this is where it gets complicated, "one-way" is when things move in one direction, but it can't move in the other. Like if you eat that candy, it's not coming back. That's one-way. And to put this in the terms we're talking about here, money is worth gems and thus indirectly gold, and gold is worth gems, but gold and gems are not worth money. You see? Because it's a one-way transfer. You can put the money in the game, but you can't take the money out of the game. One way transfer. One. Way. One.

Originally Posted by maldias

gold=time [...] if you're having problems grasping this don't take a economics class, your head will catch on fire and your brain will explode

Wow... someone who thinks gold has the same quality, measure and value as time? Ye gods... get a grip, mate.

Not the same value, no one has said that they have the same value. But there is A value for sure. For example on gold selling sites 1g costs about 0,9$ or something and that means 1 gold = 0,9 $. (for this site only, the site being fictional but the price is correct i presume)

You are making it sound like just because it is against the TOS then gold can't be converted back to real life money, which is correct if the following condition suffice. The condition being that all gold->money transactions which is against the TOS is banned(and all the ones doing it are also removed from the game).

The condition does not hold true in todays GW2 because Anet doesn't ban (Goldsellers,goldbuyers,botters,exploiters,hackers) because they do not have any good way to do so yet.

Because this condition does not hold true we can still sell & buy gold without fear from ban and therefor gold has a value in real life money.

P.S ( If your stance was correct then how come illegal drugs are worth ridicolous amounts of money? )

BMAH anyone? lol
Otoh, in GW2 you can only get the most prestigious dungeon gear from the dungeons. Can't buy it anywhichway.

Please be realistic to when you say BMAH and go learn what it is before saying people can just buy gear from it because they can't it's only a bid system and gear starts well into the 100k gold plus and realistically not every one can get it. It's one huge gold sink to dump away off the servers not a way for people to buy gear.

Also note that not every single server has gear on it and some have the .1% chance mount drops so no not every one can go and get it and before you say they could transfer blizzard has a cap amount of gold you can have before you transfer and it isn't even close to the starting bid.

Again, no. What part of "one-way transfer" is it that you don't understand? It has to be "one-way", isn't it?

Is food worth money even though you cant sell it back after eating it? Fact is, just because something can only be converted one way does not make it worth that currency. Its still worth how much you can buy it for, especially before you have bought it. I have 20$. is 100 gold worth $20? To some people it may be.

Is food worth money even though you cant sell it back after eating it? Fact is, just because something can only be converted one way does not make it worth that currency. Its still worth how much you can buy it for, especially before you have bought it. I have 20$. is 100 gold worth $20? To some people it may be.

That is a very good example. Food that has been eaten isn't worth any money. You can't sell food you've eaten.

I'm not going to say much more on the topic (if anything), because it can't really be made any clearer, and I've already lost my temper once in this discussion due to the sheer idiocy of others.

Weirdly enough, I enjoy the PVE endgame more than PVP-endgame. But when Rated tpvp is out I think they will be on par. And I enjoy PVE endgame very much, it's to be said. I am just having a blast farming, doing dungeon with pals and collecting achievements like the jumping puzzles.

That is a very good example. Food that has been eaten isn't worth any money. You can't sell food you've eaten.

I'm not going to say much more on the topic (if anything), because it can't really be made any clearer, and I've already lost my temper once in this discussion due to the sheer idiocy of others.

In my opinion you are wrong and your hypothesis is faulty. The only one winning this debate is exploiters,hackers,goldsellers,goldbuyers and botters. Why? Because they don't waste time sitting on this discussion board discussing gold conversion value. They are out and destroying your game that you love and they are making a bomb out of it. The game you love is slowly dying because the endgame is poop and the pvp balance and pvp is bad.

Anet get your head out of your ass and start making good decisions

TL;DR Legit players lose, the game is dying, botters and exploiters win.